Name of your website?Club Happy Dog
Your name?
Donni Adams
Your Location (city, etc)
La Jolla, CA
Please give us a short summary of your website?
CLUB HAPPY DOG canines enjoy multi-hour play outings in the best of the great outdoors. There are safe, fun adventures to lakes, mountains, parks and beaches. Responsible home transport and gentle dog leadership are provided by our kind-hearted team. Serving areas: La Jolla, Del Mar, Solana Beach, Encinitas, Rancho Santa Fe, Carlsbad. Fourteen years dog excursion experience, since 1995.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
Since we don't have a retail store front, it's hard to get the word out that we even exist, let alone that there is a service such as our unique day camp for dogs. We are not a traditional dog walking or doggie daycare type of business. We're far better, we believe, for our canine club members! Our clients seem to agree with us as they vote with their pocket books.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
The web site, ClubHappyDog.com, is like a puppy itself. It only launched a few short months ago. It's loaded with pictures of the dogs having fun, as for most this shows them the WHY of selecting our service. All the information about rates et al is included as well. And as we respect the complexity of our clients' lives, we've included the forms for enrolling their precious fur kid with us on line. Couldn't be easier!
How did you decide on a name for your website?
We were quite surprised that "Club Happy Dog" was not already a dot-com site. We think it perfectly describes the mission of our service, plus leaves us open to develop a few other unique offers which we eventually want to bring down the pipeline. Words like "Adventure", "Day Camp", "Fun", "Play", were also schmoozed, but we like our site name.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
The truth is that there are NO other similar offerings. What we do is unique. There are dog walkers who give their clients a slice of our pie, but not the whole four courses. Specifically, the dogs are out for a longer time, with regular fun friends, go to a variety of wonderful nature destinations, receive manners training throughout, and get the soup-to-nuts offer for a price which is comparative to dog walkers and doggie daycare. We know the dogs would run to us instead of the alternatives if they were familiar with both and given the vote.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
The goal is to KEEP this business - please, who wouldn't want to spend their days this way? - but give it more flexibility. We'd like to secure a convenient facility where clients could drop off their dogs when they have last minute needs, although we'd still take them back home. And we're looking to purchase our own destination playground complete with creeks, huge trees, hills and other in nature that makes dogs happy. We're currently leasing land which fills this need, but there you have it as you asked.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
All in all I'd say it's commensurate. This is not the career for buying that multi-million beach home, as the margin and income is rather humble. As a lifestyle choice I don't know how you could beat sharing the beauty of nature through the perspectives of dogs. The most important aspect of the start-up investment was that of acquiring knowledge, skills and experience, and building on my natural propensity for conducting business on a relationship basis.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would accelerate securing a physical drop-off commercial space for our clients, plus the purchase instead of current of our special private park.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
We only accept one new dog per week. This gives us time to mainstream him/her into the group, spending extra personal time to make sure that the pooch builds confidence without overstepping behavioral boundaries. This is not a mass widget business. While this "problem" would be all but welcome, the one dog per week time allocation tends to work out rather naturally.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
While rare, the incident of a dog being too rough or aggressive, or needing training 101 badly comes up from time to time. We work with a few wonderful trainers to refer clients to. The clients who are in denial about their dog's true status - "not MY DOG!" - would rank right up there at the top of hair pulling situations.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Re-starting in the San Diego area after leaving the Malibu/Pacific Palisades/Beverly Hills area. I the owner left because the State of California took our home base park playground as part of a 7 acre purchase for park land. Kudos to the State for the idea of adding to our parks, but it closed down what an area where we were not only respected but adored. It's difficult to get the pulse beat of this San Diego turf, as there is no predominant industry to get established in like the entertainment industry we previously enjoyed.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
The truth is that we haven't promoted our web site. We are starting to advertise in print mediums to direct people to our web site. Dogs are treasured family members. Cold web site searches are less likely than word of mouth referrals. So far our clients have been referred to us by friends and family in our prior Pacific Palisades/Brentwood stomping grounds.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
I would only say that it is disappointing. Our first web site in the old turf went up in the 1990's when there were not only far fewer sites competing for attention but also fewer people who would pound the search engines for research. The site is not meaningful to us yet. Maybe this interview will help!
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
We'll keep the site up forever, as long as we have the privilege of being in business. Worst case our clients get to visit it and see pictures of their loved fur kids on the internet, which is fun. Best case it will start to become a true tool for our business.
Do you think your business is important in the whole scheme of things?
Very definitely YES. Our service is a solution for taking the (bad word) dog into becoming a pet, taking them from being considered mistaken decisions about acquiring to earning a valued stature in the family. Dogs who are digging, barking, eating the house, have separation anxiety and are lonely have their pent up energy redirected with our service, plus learn how to happily exist in the company of humans. Instead of being a corked up can of worms, they are peacefully tranquil and like sponges for the training time, plus finally the deserved receipt of affection.
What is your website address?
Club Happy Dog
